We've finally updated our concept, print and screenshot galleries to include hi-res versions of the assets featured in the Game Informer Halo 2 issue. But as a special bonus, we explore those levels just a little more closely.

28 Million Strong... and Growing

If you've been a part of Bungie.net since before we launched the "new hotness" in April, then you've no doubt seen just how crazy-busy our site has become over the past few months. How crazy? Well over 28 million page views crazy!

Everyone knows that the new Bungie.net has seen a substantial increase in overall traffic and membership. When we launched the new site back on April 13th (our "official launch day" even though we were live starting the afternoon of the 12th) we got nearly one million page views in a single day. To put it in perspective... that's a LOT. The crusty old Bnet of yesteryear didn't have fancy stat-tracking so we really don't have much hard data to compare it to, so suffice it to say that we've already eclipsed the lifetime traffic of the old site in a matter of weeks.
Here's a quick look at the past few months of Bungie.net by the numbers:
[*][b]28,000,000[/b] total page views (as of 6/7)
[*][b]176,886[/b] forum posts (as of today!.. and only 3 moderators, yikes!)
[*][b]37,000[/b] daily unique visitors (on avg.)
[*][b]24,300[/b] new user accounts created (as of 6/7)
[*][b]13[/b] new Halo 2 screenshots
[*][b]4[/b] death threats
[*][b]2[/b] marriage proposals
[*][b]1[/b] complaint from Microsoft legal regarding image of a drunken Webmaster on our error page
It's been an exciting few weeks and the game isn't even out yet! Stick around, we're just getting warmed up and there's plenty of good stuff yet to come... And tell your friends and your friends' friends, the more the merrier. Our Underground Army is going to need to be rather large before we can attempt to act on our final, secret plans for world domination.

No Handheld Halo

Recent internet reporting has suggested that a Game Boy version of Halo is in the works. We can officially lay that rumor to rest.

There is no Game Boy version of Halo planned, and none in production. It's very unlikely that such a version would ever happen for all the obvious reasons, and the less obvious reasons, that the ColecoVision talks fell apart and The Bandai Pippin version is taking up all our development bandwidth…

Bungie Weekly Update!!!

Not a bad little [url=http://www.forerunners.org/phpbbinst/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=1853#1853]UPDATE[/url] even if I say so myself. Head over to [url=http://www.forerunners.org/phpbbinst/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=1853#1853] FORERUNNERS.ORG[/url] right now to check it out, with news on voice, animation, servers, the usual and a few unusual extras.

If you haven't seen the updates before, you can check them out at our [url=http://www.bungie.net/Games/Halo2/page.aspx?section=FAQInfo&subsection=WeeklyUpdate&page=15] ARCHIVE[/url] and enjoy our past efforts.

$15,000 State vs State Halo Tournament

Xtournaments $15,000 State vs State Halo 4 vs 4 Tournament will be hosted on August 14th at 11:30 am at over 15 States in the United States. The finals of this event will take place in September at the Igames Expo in New York City where over 3000 people expected to show. To get more information in this event
visit us at
http://www.x-tournaments.com/
or our new domain name
http://www.halotournaments.com/
If you have any questions post them in our forums and we will answer them right away.
ARE YOU READY TO MAKE HISTORY????
Victor
Xtournaments

We take a look at what our brave boys and girls overseas are doing when they're not having RPGs fired at them, and we interview a real fighting man who wouldn't cry if he heard a scary noise, or saw a bee, like we would.

New Poll!

Like we said, there's a new poll over in the forums. We want to know who you think would make the best [url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=150262]Movie Master Chief[/url] so what are you waiting for? Get over there and [url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=150262]Rock the Vote[/url].

Now we should also point out, that this in now way implies a Halo movie is in the works, and as of this exact moment, there isn't one. So don't get your knickers in a twist.

Halo Hauls in Awards!

The E3 Game Critics Awards are arguably the most sought after plaudit at E3. This year, Halo 2's multiplayer demo garnered three of them. The awards are voted on by a panel of journalists and contributors from 35 different publications, from TV Guide to EGM. You can read the full list of awards [url=http://www.gamecriticsawards.com/win.html]RIGHT HERE![/url]

Bungie Weekly Update!!!

The Weekly Update is over at [url=http://www.subnova.com/forum/?pid=20040604.224357]SUBNOVA[/url] today, and we talk about the usual stuff - animation, code, all that, but there's actually some interesting news on progress too. And, possibly the single worst Mister Chief in history.

So go read about it [url=http://www.subnova.com/forum/?pid=20040604.224357]at SUBNOVA[/url] for some laughs, some tears and some mild amusement.
And if you've never seen the updates before, why not go read the [url=http://www.bungie.net/Games/Halo2/page.aspx?section=FAQInfo&subsection=WeeklyUpdate&page=15]ARCHIVE[/url] right now.

Ugly Webmaster Letters

He's hairy, he's unhappy and he may be hungover. Whatever it is, he's answering your letters, and not politely either. [url=http://www.bungie.net/Inside/CustomPage.aspx?section=LettersToTheWebmaster&subsection=Main&page=14]The Webmaster is back.[/url]

Got Content?

As you probably noticed, our latest top story was written by a Bungie community member just like you. Do you have a cool idea for a story or something interesting to share with our readers?

One of the major reasons our community kicks so much ass is the awesome and talented people who make it up. Anyone who is a Bungie.net member has the power to submit their own news story which will then be viewed by thousands and thousands of people across the world.
Sure, there's myself and of course our beloved content monkey Frankie, but neither of us can possibly keep up with all the cool things happening out there in light of the other top secret projects we have to handle. This is where you come in.
If you're signed in to Bungie.net, you'll notice there's a button on the front page that says "submit news." This is there for our members to use to share information and interesting news from the "trenches." Have a huge LAN event coming up? Kicking off a new fan site? Put your story on the Bungie.net front page and share it with the world!
There are of course a few rules to abide by... Not just any story is going to make it's way on our front page. Naturally it must be written well - this means it's coherent, free of spelling and grammar errors and generally comes across as "professional." Also, it needs to be relevant. Anything related to Bungie - our games, our community, our fans - is all fair game. It should also be interesting - will people care to read it? And lastly, don't plagerize. Write your own stuff, don't copy and paste an AP news feed or steal something from a fansite unless it's been cleared by the author and you give them credit.
In some cases, you can even contribute a top story, like Cunbelin did for us this week. If you have an idea for a story that you think would make a great top story, send a message to Frankie or I with your idea and we'll get back to you. If we use it, we'll make you an honorary Bungie.net volunteer staffer and send you a special gift in the mail.
The power is in your hands. We welcome your help in making Bungie.net a better place and helping to keep us all connected and informed throughout the best community in the universe!

Interested in creating your own custom Halo PC content or just checking out some cool new user created stuff? Long time community member Cunbelin has whipped up this handy update on what's been happening in the Halo editing scene.

Avatar CONTEST!

The arrival of the new hotness last month brought a ton of new features and content to the site. The absence of avatars on the old bungie.net is one such feature many users clamored madly for -- including myself.

The arrival of the new hotness last month brought a ton of new features and content to the site. The absence of avatars on the old Bungie.net is one such feature many users clamored madly for -- including myself. We
just didn't have a way to represent ourselves visually with the old Bungie.net.
After a good bit of whining on the Septagon and one huge bribe to the Webmaster -- our wish was finally granted. Somewhat,anyway...
Click [url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=129294]here[/url] for full avatar contest details!

The REAL Last Spartan

The Covenant armada is approaching Earth and one lone hero stands between them and the annihilation of the entire human race.... Help us [url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=122218]Bungie Princess[/url], you're our only hope!

This message was posted earlier this week in our [url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=4]Gallery[/url] forum, but it seems not a lot of you are aware of its existence. Taking the place of our caption database from the old Truth and Reconciliation site, we occassionally post random pictures in there. You should check it every so often.

Bungie Weekly Update!!!

Short, lame update this week, thanks to the trials and tribulations of 3D screenshottery, and other weak excuses. There is some snippety rumoring regarding multiplayer, Parsons' theory on why Robots will NOT destroy us and more. Check it out [url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=108143&viewreplies=true]HERE! In one of our brand-new forums![/url]

And if you haven't read the updates before, go check them out in our crazy [url=http://www.bungie.net/Games/Halo2/page.aspx?section=FAQInfo&subsection=WeeklyUpdate&page=15]ARCHIVE[/url].

Seriously! Thanks to some clever thinking and smart technology, we're pleased to present you with the first ever 3D screenshot of Halo 2. So make sure your movie players are all up to date, this one's worth the download!

WortWortWortHog

What happens when you get a few Elites behind the wheel of a Warthog? Check out the latest desktop [url=/Games/Halo2/gallery.aspx?gallery=Wallpaper&page=1] wallpaper [/url] from Zoe!

It's still weird to see Elites riding in a Warthog, no? I guess we'll have to get used to it since we will all inevitably be facing plenty of these while enjoying some Halo 2 multiplayer mayhem.
The original idea for this came from Bungie.net oldschooler Evil Otto and then Zoe whipped up a version that could be shared with everyone.
Enjoy!

Forums back to normal

Okay, we're sorry about that, but the forums are working properly again.

Earlier this week, the forums started behaving in wacky ways - mostly screwing up the ordering of posts and other crazy things. As you may have noticed, yesterday we nailed down the issue (problem on the database server). After watching it for a day, we're pretty confident that we know what caused it and that the problems with disappearing and out of order posts should not occur again. Of course, let us know if you notice any problems creep back in.

MLG Chicago - Midwest Mayhem

[url=http://www.chitownmayhem.com]MLG Chicago – Midwest Mayhem[/url] is coming to Chicago June 19th and 20th and promises to be one of the greatest tournaments of all time. It’s an MLG major, which means winners will receive double points and get one step closer to a free trip to Vegas with prizes no one has seen in the Halo Community. Its about to get crazy in Chi-town!

Just a short while from now teams from all over the country will be gathering at the luxurious [url=http://www.sheratonchicago.com/]Sheraton Chicago and Towers[/url]. Sounds kind of daunting doesn’t it? Well, it should! We have 12,000 sq. feet of exhibition space to use for the tournament. Like the Philly hotel, this is a higher end location, so the discounted rate we are receiving of $129 a night is a pretty big discount.
We have developed a whole new format for this tourney that will prove to make everything that much more exciting. This is only the fourth city on the 2004 Season… so you and your team have plenty of time still to catch up to the leaders and compete with the best while pocketing over $10,000 in prizes in Chicago alone. Tons of side games and over $10,000 in cash as always will be present to sweeten the deal and guarantee a fun weekend for all. If you have any questions you can get in touch with me personally at [email]dolbex@mlgpro.com[/email] or find a ton of information on the official website: [url=http://www.chitownmayhem.com]www.chitownmayhem.com[/url]. There is still time to register and 52 Sony Wega TV's to go around. (Ohh.. what a beautiful site) Hope to see you in Chicago!

Forum Display Issue

Just a quick note about something you may have noticed in the New Mombasa and Flood forums...

Yes, we know there is a problem with the pager and the topic listing, and yes, we are working on fixing it. We currently have no ETA, but are hoping to get it in tomorrow. Your posts are not lost, they are just being displayed in a funky way.
Again, we know about it, and are working on the problem.

Bungie.net Update

You may have noticed that Bungie.net was offline for a short while this morning as we released a few new updates. Besides a couple of small tweaks under the hood, you'll notice we've got 5 new forums, plenty of new avatars and a significant (yet somewhat sad) change to the 7th Column. Read on for the full scoop.

As part of the evolution of Bungie.net, we are continually working on new features and updates to make the site a better place for everyone. Today marks our latest "big" update, but rest assured there are a lot of plans still underway for additional feature improvements, community integration and the much anticipated Halo 2 connectivity. Stay tuned!
[b]New Forums![/b]
Since the first day the new Bungie.net launched, our forums have been the most popular section on the site. In fact, as of yesterday morning, we've already logged over [b]90,600[/b] forum posts! (that's roughly 2,150 posts per day)
As you all know, it hasn't exactly been easy to wade through the flood of posts and topics in our new [url=/Forums/default.aspx]forums[/url]. Today we added 5 new forums in hopes of spreading out the load and refining the topics of discussion to make things a little less chaotic. We all love The Underground, but the subject matter was so broad it was impossible to keep up with.
The new forums are as follows:
[*] [url=/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=6]New Mombasa[/url]
[i] Dedicated to anything and everything related to Halo 2! [/i]
[*] [url=/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=7]The Library[/url]
[i] New forum devoted strictly to talk about Halo 1 for Xbox [/i]
[*] [url=/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=8]Voting Booth[/url]
[i] This is the place to vote in Official Bungie.net Polls. Only we can create them, but anyone can vote and add their 2 cents.[/i]
[*] [url=/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=9]The Classifieds[/url]
[i] This is the place to promote and recruit members for your 7th Column Chapter[/i]
[*][url=/Forums/topics.aspx?forumID=10]The Flood[/url]
[i]Ok, you asked for it and here it is... This is the official "off topic" forum. Go here to discuss all the stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else. This is still moderated though and the rules still apply, so don't get carried away.[/i]
One other change that was made is the addition of new forum avatars! Check your 'my settings' page and you should see about 30 new ones to choose from. More importantly, Achronos has given us the ability to easily add them going forward so we can continue to expand the library without having to rely on the almightly Overlord.
That's not all that was changed....[b] The 7th Column [/b]
Remember back when we launched the new Bungie.net and we talked a little bit about the [url=/Community/page.aspx?section=FAQInfo&subsection=FAQs&page=7thcolumn]7th Column[/url] and what the future had in store? Well, if you recall, we also talked about the fact that the 7th Column is currently still running on the old and decrepit hardware and code and that it wouldn't be able to sustain itself much longer if new users continued to poor in. Unfortunately, that time is now upon us.
With the huge flood of new members into the Bungie.net community since our launch, the number of new chapters has increased dramatically and frankly the old site just can't keep up. Rather than sacrifice the 7th Column for everyone, including our existing founders who have put so much time and energy into creating great chapters, we've decided to stop all future chapter creation in order to keep the site functioning at little longer. The bad news is that newcomers won't be able to create a new chapter for themselves right now, but the good news is that the 7th Column SHOULD hold together long enough to allow existing members to continue business as usual. You can still join chapters and participate in the Column, you just can't create your own chapter for now.
We're hard at work behind the scenes creating the next iterations of Bungie.net which will include the integration of the 7th Column into the new hotness. The updated community functionality is expected to be ready to roll out some time in the next few months, hopefully before v2.0 is released in November. Until then, please continue to enjoy all that Bungie.net has to offer and be sure to check out any of the thousands of outstanding chapters that already exist on the site.
** PLEASE NOTE: Any chapters that are already in the submission queue will get approved and activated over the course of this week. **
Thanks to everyone for the ongoing support for our new site as well as your patience as we continue to evolve into something even cooler!

Site Update Tuesday

We've got goodies coming on Tuesday morning, but as usual, that means a short downtime.

We're making a sizable update on Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM PDT, but this update requires us to take the site offline for a while. So, all bungie.net web services will be offline from 10 AM to sometime around noon Pacific, probably sooner.
There will be several VERY visible changes made tomorrow, some smaller ones, and a gigantic change that you'll never even notice. Unfortunately, because I'm somewhat evil, I'm not saying anything. You have to come back tomorrow afternoon.

BUNGIE WEEKLY UPDATE!!!

It's over at [url=http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=429975]HBO Forums[/url] to make up for the fact that last week we stiffed 'em from E3 with a fake-looking update and no Mister Chief. This week, Jaime, Chris, Nathan, John and Joe tell you what happened in and out of E3.

So go check out the [url=http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=429975]HBO Forums[/url] and if you've never seen the updates before, head over to our [url=http://www.bungie.net/Games/Halo2/page.aspx?section=FAQInfo&subsection=WeeklyUpdate&page=15]ARCHIVE[/url] right now.

New Wallpapers and FAQ Update

The [url=/Games/Halo2/page.aspx?section=FAQInfo&subsection=FAQs&page=1]Halo 2 FAQ[/url] has received an overhaul and now contains all of the juicy new info revealed at E3. We've also added new desktop wallpapers for [url=/Games/Halo2/gallery.aspx?gallery=Wallpaper&page=1]Halo 2[/url] as well as [url=/Games/Halo/gallery.aspx?gallery=Wallpaper&page=2]Halo Xbox[/url]. Enjoy!

The Halo 2 FAQ was getting a little bit old and stale so we gave it a much needed updating in light of all the new cool stuff that was revealed at this year's E3 show. If you haven't been keeping up with everything, go read it now and get up to speed pronto or risk being flamed. =)
The new simple and beautiful "2" logo for Halo 2 makes a wonderful desktop decoration. Zoe, our graphic designer responsible for much of the cool stuff on Bungie.net, whipped up this new image for us to share with you.
Zoe also created 3 new Halo 1 wallpapers a while ago but they were never actually posted to the site. If you revisit the Halo Xbox Wallpaper Gallery, you'll see new versions of both 'The Flood' and 'First Strike' as well as the brand new 'Fall of Reach' wallpaper. Good stuff!

We take a close look at the subtle details, inner workings and cool secrets of the Zanzibar multiplayer map unveiled, and played to destruction, at the recent E3 expo. We also note that almost everything can be moved, blown up, climbed or explored.